Colombian jailed for £42m cocaine smuggling operation with two Scots

A Colombian national who was part of a drug-smuggling gang with two Scots has been jailed.

Didier Tordecilla Reyes worked alongside Daniel Livingstone and Mark Moran, both from Argyll and Bute, to attempt to import cocaine with a street value of £42m into the UK on a small boat.

The 40-year-old was arrested outside of a hotel in Lelley, East Yorkshire, where he had stayed overnight with the two men in May last year.

National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators found the drugs, which weighed 524 kilos, stashed inside a hire van parked outside.

Reyes had acted as a contact with Colombian drug cartels and flew to the UK, especially to take part in the smuggling bid.

Small boat used in drug smuggling operation NCA

He and Moran, 23, had sailed a (RHIB) rigid-hulled inflatable boat from the Hessle slipway before returning hours later with the drugs haul and unloaded it at a beach near Easington caravan park.

Livingstone, 25, was waiting for the men and had been shining a torch out to sea and talking on his mobile phone before they approached.

NCA officers then saw Moran and Reyes unloading a number of bags from the boat onto the beach and the van leaving the scene.

The clothes Reyes was wearing when he was arrested were so waterlogged that he had to change into a forensic white suit before being taken away.

The group had been tracked by NCA officers, who saw Moran and another man buying a VW Tourag with a tow bar in Dewsbury.

Clothes dumped during drug smuggling operation NCA

They then drove up to Humber RIBS in Hull, where they bought the high-powered inflatable boat.

Livingstone was also seen filling two large jerry cans with fuel on the same day as the drugs were unloaded onto the beach.

Sentencing

Reyes was sentenced to 13-and-a-half years imprisonment at Hull Crown Court on September 22, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine in July last year.

Livingstone pleaded guilty to the offence in June last year.

A jury at the same court convicted Moran of the same charge on October 28 last year, following an eight-day trial. A fourth man, also from Argyll and Bute, was cleared by the jury.

Moran was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and Livingstone to seven years and nine months imprisonment on December 23 last year.

NCA senior investigating officer Alan French said: “Reyes was an integral part of this smuggling attempt, acting as a go-between with drug cartel bosses in Colombia. Without his input, the cocaine would never have got into Moran and Livingstone’s hands.

“There’s no doubt these drugs would have been sold into communities around the UK, but crucial partnership working between the NCA, Humberside Police and Border Force thwarted the plot and left a huge hole in the pockets of the organised crime groups that would have benefited.

“We are determined to do all we can to tackle the threat posed by class A drugs and protect the public from the horrendous impact they have on our society.”